AUSTRALIA. CANBERRA TO REFUSE TO HELP INDONESIANS CONVICT AUSSIES ON DEATH ROW

Australia will refuse to cooperate with Indonesian authorities prosecuting nine Australians on drugs charges because they had called for the death penalty, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said.
Five were arrested at an airport on the resort island of Bali in April as they prepared to board a flight home, four of them allegedly with blocks of heroin strapped to their bodies. Another four were arrested with the assistance of Australian police at a Bali hotel where some 300 grams (10.5 ounces) of heroin was found. Indonesian prosecutors on September 28 gave files to the Denpasar District Court, seeking death by firing squad for all nine. Ruddock said Australia had agreements with other countries, particularly those who impose a death penalty, to "not provide cooperation in relation to criminal matters unless there is an assurance that a death penalty will not be sought".
"If there was further information that had to be obtained from here through the Australian Federal Police, we would seek an assurance that Indonesia would not be wanting a death penalty in each of those cases," he told reporters.
If that assurance could not be provided, "we wouldn't provide the information," he added. The role of Australian authorities in helping arrest four of the group had come under scrutiny, with critics saying police should have waited to arrest them until they were back on home soil in Australia where the death penalty has been abolished.